It’s been an interesting few weeks in the market for corporate learning systems. First, there has been ongoing interest in acquiring shares of SumTotal from various private equity firms (SumTotal First Take). Since we published the First Take, the merger agreement has been amended. Then Saba announced an agreement with IBM (Saba-IBM agreement). Now there is another acquisition in the works which I’ll tell you about next week.

These changes are part of the larger trend we wrote about last year: the emergence of a social learning platform. It is having many impacts. One of the ‘ones to watch’ is the shift in the balance of power toward the learners and the unleashing of a torrent of activity that will lead to the creation of user-generated learning content. Most learning professionals are prepared for the positive aspects of learner-to-learner interactions – things like expertise sharing, uncovering best practices and finding like-minded learners. Are they ready for the deluge of learning objects they will produce? How will it be organized and made available for reuse in ways that make it more accessible? Can it be done in ways that are less heavy-handed than some of the approaches employed for knowledge management in years past?

Thanks for sharing this important insight. The trend seems just all very clear. Is it one to watch or one to act upon now? For a small university I’d say it’s tha latter! Start a social learning platform would sound logical. But that’s more difficult thant just appearning on facebook. Does anyone know how this is done, what resources are needed for that?